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Thread: Charles Ray Hicks, Jr. - Pennsylvania Death Row

  1. #11
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Gruesome murder trial begins in the Poconos

    STROUDSBURG, Pa. - A gruesome murder trial is getting underway in the Poconos for a man accused of killing and dismembering a woman more than six years ago. A jury has been selected in Monroe County for the trial of 40-year-old Charles Hicks. The Coolbaugh Township man was charged in 2008 for the death of 36-year-old Deanna Null.

    Null's remains were discovered in trash bags scattered along Interstate 80 and Interstate 380 in Monroe and Lackawanna counties in late January 2008. Hicks was charged two months later, when investigators said they found Null's severed hands inside his Tobyhanna home. According to court records, those remains were wrapped in socks, soaked in detergent, and packed inside plumbing equipment. Police claim they also found a boot that appeared to be splattered with blood inside Hicks' car. According to court records, Hicks admitted to providing and doing drugs with Null in exchange for sex. Those same records say Hicks also confessed to having a problem hurting prostitutes. In 2011, a Monroe County judge prohibited testimony from four women Hicks was previously accused of assaulting. Three years of appeals ensued, but in April of this year, the State Supreme Court ruled those witnesses could take the stand. Hicks faces charges that include homicide, aggravated assault, and abuse of a corpse. If convicted, Hicks could face the death penalty. Opening statements begin Wednesday in Monroe County.

    http://www.wfmz.com/news/Regional-Po...conos/29512052

  2. #12
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Women testify to Hicks' violent nature

    A history of alleged violence against women, supposed odd remarks made to his former landlady and a police search of his home were the focus of testimony on the third day of Charles Hicks Jr.'s trial Friday.

    Hicks, 40, of Tobyhanna, is charged with murdering and dismembering Deanna Null, 36, of Scranton, and leaving Null's body parts in trash bags scattered along interstates 380 and 80 in Monroe County. Pennsylvania Department of Transportation workers discovered the trash bags containing Null's remains Jan. 29, 2008, and alerted police.

    The defense contends Hicks didn't kill Null, but that she died from other causes, such as a possible overdose, since she and Hicks were using drugs together. The defense says Hicks, not wanting to get caught with drugs, got rid of Null's body instead of reporting her death to the authorities.

    To support its argument that Null's death was not accidental, the prosecution showed Hicks' pattern of alleged violence against previous women. Between Thursday and Friday, a total of three women, living in Virginia, Texas and New Jersey respectively, testified Hicks assaulted them when he knew them prior to meeting Null.

    Hicks was charged in the case of the Virginia woman, a former drug addict, but charges were dismissed when she did not appear in court to testify against him due to what she said was police miscommunication. No charges were filed in the cases of the other two women, both of whom likewise were leading troubled lives involving drug use at the time.

    The New Jersey woman said she was a passenger in Hicks' truck in Texas, where she lived at the time, when they got into an argument.

    She said Hicks took both of his hands off the wheel, as the truck was traveling at more than 50 mph on the highway, and grabbed her by the neck, digging his fingernails in and cutting her. When she opened the passenger door and stuck her foot out to indicate her distress to other motorists, Hicks told her to shut the door or he would kill her, she said. She said she shut the door and that Hicks calmed down.

    The other woman testified she was with Hicks when he was smoking crack cocaine at a Texas motel and that she told him she needed heroin. She said he promised to take her to get heroin, but instead drove her someplace she didn't recognize.

    She said they began arguing and that she tried to exit his truck, at which point he grabbed her by the neck. She said he let her go when she began screaming for help, and let her drive. She drove back to the motel, at which point Hicks threatened to run her over if she left his truck. She said she exited the truck and "made another racket" for help, at which point the motel manager came out and called 911.

    Landlady testifies

    Amy Mercado testified she and her now-ex-husband owned a Route 423 (Prospect Street) property, near Interstate 380 in Tobyhanna, in January 2008, when Hicks expressed interest in renting from them.

    Hicks by then had met Null days prior in Scranton, where she was a homeless prostitute who drank and sometimes took drugs, according to prior testimony from former addicts who knew her. Mercado knew none of this at the time when showing Hicks the rental property.

    "When I showed him a concrete foundation in the backyard, where another house once stood, he asked if any dead bodies were buried there," Mercado said. "I told him no. Then, he joked and said, 'It's not like I'm a serial killer or anything.' I just found it strange."

    Witnesses in Scranton said they last saw Null alive Jan. 18, 2008, when she got into a car driven by a male later believed to be Hicks, according to police. Mercado said Hicks, after signing the lease agreement in Tobyhanna, got the keys from her husband two or three days prior to Jan. 29, the day when body parts later identified as Null's were found in trash bags dumped along the nearby highways.

    With Hicks planning to move in Feb. 1, Mercado said, she was cleaning the house in preparation when she noticed a foul odor in a bedroom closet area. She dismissed it at the time as maybe a mouse that died in the walls.

    In early March 2008, after the body parts had been identified as Null's and Hicks had become the prime suspect, police executed a warrant for what became a four-day search, involving a New York state police cadaver dog, at his rental.

    Body parts found

    There, they found severed hands, later identified as Null's, which had been wrapped in old newspaper inside baggies, and large socks containing detergent, state police investigator John Corrigan testified. Located in a plumbing chase between walls adjoining the bedroom closet and bathroom, the hands presumably were what Mercado had smelled on the day she was cleaning the house for Hicks to move into.

    Corrigan said other evidence found included a Sawzall blade on the underside of a floor mat at the bottom of the basement steps, hairs on one of those steps and trash bags in the attic similar to the ones that had contained Null's remains.

    The prosecution expects to call five or six more witnesses Monday and then rest its case possibly Monday or Wednesday, since courts will be closed Veterans Day on Tuesday. The defense then expects to call two or three witnesses before resting its case, though there may be rebuttal witnesses called afterward.

    The jury could begin deliberating late next week or early the following week. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty if Hicks is convicted of murder.

    http://www.poconorecord.com/article/....YtpfwhtW.dpuf
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  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Man convicted in 2008 murder-dismemberment case

    A 40-year-old man could face the death penalty after being convicted Friday in the death and dismembering of a woman whose remains were found along two interstates six years ago.

    Charles Ray Hicks was convicted of first-degree murder by a Monroe County jury of killing Deanna Null, 36, in January 2008. Her remains were found in trash bags at eight locations along Interstates 80 and 380 in the Stroudsburg area, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia, and her severed hands were found hidden in the walls of Hicks' home.

    He also was found guilty of tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty; that phase of the trial was to begin Monday.

    Authorities have said Hicks told investigators that he gave Null drugs in exchange for sex, but he maintained he did not harm her before she died of an accidental drug overdose.

    Public defender Jason LaBar had argued jurors could not convict Hicks of premeditated, first-degree murder because forensic experts disagreed on how Null died. Alcohol and cocaine were found in Null's blood, authorities said.

    LaBar did not dispute, however, that Hicks had dismembered Null.

    http://www.thecourierexpress.com/new...fa27821ab.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #14
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    Jury to Decide if Killer Gets Death Penalty or Life in Prison

    Stroudsburg, Monroe County – This week a jury will decide if a man convicted of murdering and dismembering a woman gets the death penalty or life in prison. The sentencing phase of Charles Hicks trial started Monday.

    Last week the same jury convicted him of murdering Deanna Null in January of 2008.

    Jurors must now decide if Hicks tortured Null before he killed her. If he did, they can sentence him to death. They must also consider other factors in his life that are good. Those factors are called “mitigating circumstances.”

    The defense team is trying to convince the jury that there is enough good in Hicks to spare his life. His lawyers say just because he did a bad thing doesn’t mean he is a bad man.

    They plan to demonstrate he has depression and depression runs in his family. They said they will show that his father and grandmother struggled with alcohol abuse. They also say they will show that Hicks is now religious and often offers spiritual encouragement to other inmates. Additionally, they say Hicks started a group exercise program in jail and is overall a model inmate.

    Hicks’ mother, Emma, took the stand first. She said she can’t imagine him getting the death penalty. She cried, “Being a mother your children are always your children no matter how old they are. He is my little boy. I will always love him. He is my only son so this is something that just hurts you to the core.”

    His sisters, Charlotte and Leslie, also testified. Charlotte said she, her brother, and other family members have suffered with bouts of depression. She noted she knows he once tried to slit his wrists. “My brother is not a monster. He’s not some creature that just landed here,” she cried. “I love my brother. He is my brother and no matter what I love him.”

    Hicks’ former fiancé also took the stand. She said they lived together for two or three years and he wasn’t violent. She broke up with him when she discovered he was on drugs. She believes the drugs turned him into a different person and noted after he started using, he threatened to kill her and also tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.

    http://www.pahomepage.com/story/d/st...7U2PccSAjaij7A
    Last edited by Helen; 11-17-2014 at 08:05 PM. Reason: spacing

  5. #15
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    His lawyers say just because he did a bad thing doesn’t mean he is a bad man.
    In my eyes a really bad definiton of a "bad thing". Especially if I read this

    Her remains were found in trash bags at eight locations along Interstates 80 and 380 in the Stroudsburg area, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia, and her severed hands were found hidden in the walls of Hicks' home.
    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    They plan to demonstrate he has depression and depression runs in his family. They said they will show that his father and grandmother struggled with alcohol abuse.
    Ok, and all his relatives became murderers too or what is the point?

    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    They also say they will show that Hicks is now religious and often offers spiritual encouragement to other inmates. Additionally, they say Hicks started a group exercise program in jail and is overall a model inmate.
    As long as he can´t resurrect Mrs. Null it doesn´t matter in my eyes.

    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    Hicks’ mother, Emma, took the stand first. She said she can’t imagine him getting the death penalty. She cried, “Being a mother your children are always your children no matter how old they are. He is my little boy. I will always love him. He is my only son so this is something that just hurts you to the core.”
    I think Mrs. Null´s family thinks the same about their murdered daughter. Some words are lacking for the MVS.

    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    She noted she knows he once tried to slit his wrists. “My brother is not a monster.
    Unfortunately, he wasn´t successful. I think it was an attempt to get attention which is now used to get some kudos.

    Quote Originally Posted by R T View Post
    She broke up with him when she discovered he was on drugs. She believes the drugs turned him into a different person and noted after he started using, he threatened to kill her and also tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.
    Seems he turned from a nice boy into a monster after he started using drugs.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  6. #16
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Jury sentences man to death in 2008 slaying, dismemberment of woman in Pennsylvania

    STROUDSBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) — An eastern Pennsylvania jury has imposed the death penalty on a man convicted in the murder and dismemberment of a woman whose remains were found along a pair of eastern Pennsylvania interstates six years ago.

    Forty-year-old Charles Ray Hicks was convicted last week of first-degree murder in Monroe County in the January 2008 murder of 36-year-old Deanna Null.

    Null's remains were found in trash bags scattered along Interstates 80 and 380 near Stroudsburg, about 70 miles north of Philadelphia. Police said her severed hands were found hidden in the walls of Hicks' home.

    After hearing testimony from several defense witnesses and closing arguments, jurors deliberated for more than seven hours and asked for a legal definition of torture before deciding that Hicks deserved execution.

    http://www.tribtown.com/view/story/c...ins-Interstate

  7. #17
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Does he go straight to DR, or does the judge have to do the final sentencing?
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #18
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    It's unclear to me what'll happen with Hicks' case. It seems that sometimes Pennsylvania inmates get sentenced the same day by the judge, while others have sentencing hearings weeks later.

  9. #19
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Poconos killer Charles Hicks gets death, but he may have dismembered 5 more women

    One chapter of the chilling saga of convicted killer Charles Hicks is over. A jury in Stroudsburg decided Tuesday night he deserves the death penalty for murdering and dismembering Deanna Null of Scranton in 2008, WNEP-16 reports.

    In that case, Hicks, 40, was convicted of putting Null's body parts in trash bags, and then scattering them on interstate highways in Lackawanna and Monroe Counties.

    Now comes shocking word that Hicks has told investigators this was not his first kill.

    According to WNEP, investigators now reveal that after his conviction in the Null case, Hicks admitted to killing at least five other women in Texas, with the news station writing:

    "He made certain admissions that he had killed some women down there and that's going to also be investigated and may result in some charges," said Michael Mancuso, Assistant District Attorney of Monroe County.

    Pennsylvania State Police say they have been working with Texas Rangers since 2008. They say that's when Charles Hicks moved from the Lone Star State to Coolbaugh Township in Monroe County.

    They say he was here less than a month before he killed Null. And from the start, authorities suspected it was not his first murder.

    "I don't think you just start at this level. What he did to Deanna Null I think was indicative of someone who has done similar things in the past," Mancuso said.

    Yet none of this stopped Hicks and his family from trying to spare his life during the death penalty phase of the trial. According to WNEP, Hicks' mother, sister, and former fiancee testified on his behalf, describing his drug problems.

    Said his sister to the jury: "My brother is not a monster."

    But the panel that convicted Hicks on Friday returned after six-plus hours of deliberation with a unanimous finding for the death penalty.

    Hicks' family left the courtroom in tears. Meanwhile, Hicks had no comment on his way out of the courtroom except to say he loves his family, WNEP wrote.

    http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Does he go straight to DR, or does the judge have to do the final sentencing?
    A formal sentencing in Monroe County Court is scheduled for Jan. 6.

    http://citizensvoice.com/news/hicks-...case-1.1790312

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